Barsoom

 

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The first of 13 books introduces us to John Carter, a Civil War vetern, that one day wakes up on Mars. The Martians refer to their planet as Barsoom and John meets two different races on the planet service the more alien Tharks and the more humanoid Heliumites. John learns that since his muscles are used to the more dense gravity of Earth he is sort of a superman here on Mars. The story is fun if a little sexist in parts due to its age being first published in 1912.

Princess of Mars (2009)

They modernized this version. Instead of the Civil War, this John Carter is from the Afghanistan conflict. When he is wounded he is teleported to Barsoom which in this version is not Mars but a planet in the Alpha Centauri stellar system. The story then proceeds pretty close to the original book.

John Carter (2012)

A more direct adaption of the original book but with an explanation for how John got to the planet that makes so much more sense than one day I woke up on Mars. They were setting this up for a franchise but since it was a bomb, Disney decided not to continue. I am disappointed about this because I really enjoyed the movie. Personally I think it was poor marketing on their part. 1. Their major tagline was “a movie a hundred years in the making.” 2. It was released the same weekend as the Hunger Games.